Cloud spells the end of purpose-built backup products

The success of cloud storage is spelling the end for purpose-built backup products. Revenue within the storage appliance market has plummeted by 16.2 per cent, with actual unit sales down 14.9 per cent, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Tracker report.

IDC's research manager for storage systems Liz Conner said: "The traditional backup market is declining as end users and vendors alike explore new technology. Cloud-based backup tiers, hybrid flash arrays, emphasis on replication and data recovery are all reasons for the market's decline.”

It would appear that the growth of cloud has had the biggest impact on the market. None of the big entreprise vendors have achieved growth in the area in the past 12 months, with Dell in particular suffering. Despite still having more than a 55 per cent share in the market, Dell’s revenue from backup products was down by 27.5 per cent compared to 12 months ago.

On the plus side hard-disk-centric arrays are still doing ok. The tracker says all-flash machines ‘generated over $1.4 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 37.6% year over year’ while hybrid flash arrays scored ‘$2.1 billion in revenue and 19.6 per cent of the total market share’.

In total the market fell by 16.20 per cent, with HPE, IBM and Hitachi all reporting year-on-year slumps.